Sport Media Texts and Audiences: A Critical Overview of Issues, Interactions and Interventions

This chapter considers a selection of sport media power issues that I have deliberated upon over the last twenty years of research in the field. Most notably during this time there has been a wealth of research exploring how textual meanings of sport have been constructed through media discourses, narratives and imagery (Boyle and Haynes 2009; Pederson 2013; Rowe 2004; Whannel 1992). A case is argued here for more on-going research that engages critically with the varied interactions across the production-text-audience nexus and which goes beyond the prevalent focus on only one stage of the communication process. This is especially imperative given the growth in innovative digital technologies, providing multiple platforms for such interactions, which progressively blur boundaries between production and consumption. Significantly too, this has shifted power balances between media professionals, sport stars and their audiences. As media interactions become ever more multifaceted and challenging to determine, it becomes increasingly important to develop varied approaches that promote greater understanding of usages and meanings generated and circulated across the sport media complex.